{"id":31405,"date":"2019-04-18T21:13:37","date_gmt":"2019-04-19T02:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=31405"},"modified":"2019-04-18T22:53:05","modified_gmt":"2019-04-19T03:53:05","slug":"troubled-oklahoma-county-jail-could-be-operated-by-private-company-under-plan-being-considered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2019\/04\/18\/troubled-oklahoma-county-jail-could-be-operated-by-private-company-under-plan-being-considered\/","title":{"rendered":"Troubled Oklahoma County jail could be operated by private company under plan being considered"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Clay<\/p>\n

Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Clay Bennett, center, chairs the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Advisory Council.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Control of the state\u2019s largest county jail could be placed under the authority of a public-private trust according to a plan considered Thursday by an Oklahoma County advisory group.<\/p>

Members of the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Advisory Council voted to recommend county commissioners consider a draft proposal to give oversight of the Oklahoma County Jail\u2019s operations to a trust made up of one county commissioner, the county sheriff and seven private citizens.<\/p>

Under the proposal, the seven appointees would be chosen by the county\u2019s three commissioners.<\/p>

Twelve advisory council members voted yes; six chose not to vote.<\/p>

The jail has a sullied history. The U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s Civil Rights Division has inspected the jail multiple times since 2003, and the agency concluded the jail\u2019s conditions violated prisoners\u2019 constitutional rights.<\/p>

Currently, the jail is run by the county sheriff\u2019s office, and county commissioners pay for the jail\u2019s operation. If the trust model considered by the advisory council were adopted, the jail could be operated by the winner of a bidding process. Members of the trust could also hire a jail administrator to run the jail without opening a bidding contest.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater argued that the Board of County Commissioners should have discussed a jail trust before the advisory council made a recommendation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Advisory council debate<\/h3>

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater sits on the advisory council, and he strongly objected to holding a vote.<\/p>

Prater argued a proposal for a jail trust should begin in a public Board of County Commissioners meeting, and that is something that has not happened.<\/p>

\u201cI believe it\u2019s more appropriate for the Board of County Commissioners to consider what type of a jail trust — if in fact they do choose to go in that direction — before this body were to recommend any action on whatever jail trust they choose to create,\u201d Prater said.<\/p>

County officials say there are multiple types of jail trusts. One would require a county-wide vote, but the type of trust advanced by the advisory council can be established through a majority-vote by county commissioners.<\/p>

Oklahoma County\u2019s Chief Public Defender, Bob Ravitz, shared some of the district attorney\u2019s concerns but said a jail trust was first recommended to the county seven years ago, and it\u2019s time for commissioners to pursue it.<\/p>

\u201cI hope that this document is changed in a public meeting \u2026,\u201d Ravitz said. \u201cBut if we don\u2019t put something forward, it\u2019s going to be business as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheriff\u2019s questions<\/h3>

Oklahoma County Sheriff P.D. Taylor said he didn\u2019t find out the advisory council would be considering a recommendation for the jail trust until days before the vote. He was surprised and has a lot of questions about how it would change his role managing the jail and how it would affect funding for his office.<\/p>

If county commissioners vote to create a jail trust under the model introduced by the advisory council, the sheriff\u2019s office could win the bidding process to decide who would manage the jail. The bid for the jail\u2019s operations could also be won by a private company. In either event, the jail\u2019s operator would answer to the trust.<\/p>

Taylor claimed private prison operators have already been contacted to find out if they would be willing to bid for a contract to run the jail.<\/p>

StateImpact hasn\u2019t been able to confirm the sheriff\u2019s claim. Two of Oklahoma County\u2019s three commissioners said Thursday\u2019s meeting was the first time they\u2019d heard potential jail operators may have been contacted.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m concerned about my employees (and) what happens to them,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cAre they going to be terminated? Are they going to be employees of the trust? Are they going to lose their health care benefits?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sheriff<\/p>\n

Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Oklahoma County Sheriff P.D. Taylor abstained from Thursday’s vote because he didn’t know how the proposed trust would affect his office and employees.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Many counties in Oklahoma do not fully fund their sheriff\u2019s offices<\/a>\u00a0and local jails with tax revenue. That means the sheriff must raise the additional money to operate the county jail and pay for law enforcement costs. Many times that is done by generating money from inside the jail by charging for things such as commissary, housing inmates from other counties and inmate phone calls.<\/p>

Taylor said if a private company takes over jail operations, he\u2019s unsure how he would raise the money to pay for 110 of his employees.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m talking patrol division, I\u2019m talking SROs (School Resource Officers), I\u2019m talking dispatch, I\u2019m talking investigators …,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>

Taylor says those officers are especially needed in the county\u2019s unincorporated area — where they are the only law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\"Kevin<\/p>\n

Quinton Chandler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Oklahoma County District 3 Commissioner Kevin Calvey, center, voted in favor of recommending a jail trust be considered by the Board of County Commissioners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

County commissioners have the power\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>

District 3 County Commissioner Kevin Calvey also sits on the advisory council, and he voted in favor of recommending a jail trust to the Board of County Commissioners.<\/p>

Calvey has been a vocal supporter of county jail reform. He said he looks forward to considering a trust if the subject is added to the Board of County Commissioners\u2019 agenda.<\/p>

Any elected county official or department head can add an item to the board\u2019s agenda.<\/p>

District 1 County Commissioner Carrie Blumert said the advisory group\u2019s recommendation is not the final word. The Board of County Commissioners will decide the jail\u2019s fate.<\/p>

Blumert has also been a vocal advocate for jail reform. However, she couldn\u2019t say whether or not a jail trust would be a positive change for the county. Blumert also pointed out the current commissioners haven\u2019t discussed how a trust would work.<\/p>

\u201cAll those discussions have to happen in an open meeting \u2026,\u201d Blumert said.<\/p>

Blumert said the potential success of a jail trust depends on who is chosen to sit on it. She said there would be negative consequences if a trust\u2019s members have extreme political agendas.<\/p>

\u201cIf you have people who sit on a trust who care about good government and care about making a jail as humane and as efficient as possible, then that\u2019s good,\u201d Blumert said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Oklahoma County advisory council recommended that county officials create a separate body to supervise the Oklahoma County Jail. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":31406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"page-noFeature.php","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1035,1061,1058,1060,1057,1055,1056,1059],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31405"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31423,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31405\/revisions\/31423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}